This is how I did it, there might be alternative ways to my way though. For the most part, this is how it was recommended to me by Seth and Colin (SSTG and Nightshades).

Difficulty Level 6/10

Four things of note before you start:

**** If you are not a professional or REALLY good with vinyl, I see no way that you can get this to be 100% perfect. If you want it 100% perfect, you gotta pay a pro. With patience and dedication, I'm sure anyone can get this to be almost perfect ****

**** Heat guns work really well to take out creases, but if you heat too much you can distort the stripe's conformation and you will have to order a new one. Don't ask how I know ****

**** It really helps if you have an extra person to hold stuff for you and for a second opinion. ****

**** If you have a small air bubble after laying down the vinyl, try pushing it out with your finger instead of relifting the vinyl and laying it back down. Many times, that air bubble will just go out. DO NOT POKE A HOLE!!! ****

If you live in Florida, and want to come to Gainesville, I would be happy to help you lay the vinyl down. Just PM or let me know somehow so we can work out a time I'm free

Then, get some of this stuff and apply it everywhere you are going to use your stripes. I applied it all over my hood, fender, roof, and trunk just in case. You really only need to apply it where you put the vinyl though. This gets rid of any wax.

Next, you need to remove the adhesion remover and anything not removed yet with some 50/50 alcohol:water. If it's close to 50/50 that's fine. I used 91% in a 1:1 ratio with distilled water. This gets rid of the adhesion remover as well as any contaminants that may have been there.

HOOD:

Now we get to the fun stuff. The vinyl is in between the transfer tape (top) and backing (the back). I started off with the hood. Place the hood stripe where you want to position it. I tried to line it up with the cowl.

Three things of note here:

1) MOST IMPORTANT! WHEN YOU GET READY TO TAKE THE TRANSFER TAPE (TOP LAYER) OFF, START ON THE PARTS OF THE VINYL THAT WILL OVERLAP OVER THE HOOD. IF YOU START ON THE SIDE OF THE COWL, YOU WILL DISTORT THE IMAGE OF THE STRIPES!!!! THAT PERFECTLY DESIGNED EDGE WON'T BE PERFECT ANYMORE

2) There should be about a 1/4th inch of vinyl overhanging anywhere the stripe will go under the hood. This means around the windshield, fender, and bumper, but not the middle of the hood where you line it up with the cowl.

3) You can see where the vinyl will lay down through the transfer tape, don't think that the vinyl is as big as the transfer tape, otherwise you will misjudge.

I taped across the middle. After you have lined it up, HOLD it down, and put some tape across it. I used several large pieces of tape.

VERY IMPORTANT: AFTER YOU TAPE, TAKE A LOOK AT THE STRIPE FROM ALL ANGLES. MAKE SURE YOUR STRIPE HAS NOT MOVED WHILE TAPING, THIS HAPPENED TO ME AND SCREWED ME OVER.

Once you have gotten here, it gets a little harder. I did top down, but you can do down to top also, doesn't matter. Let's go with top down. Pull the stripe closer to the windshield up, and peel off the backing to where you taped to. Use scissors or a razor to cut the backing. Backing should still be there on the majority of the stripe.

Use a squeegee (I used a credit card) and start laying the stripe from the middle to the top towards the windshield. The stripe is real sticky, but you can lift it back off the paint if you need to. Try to get any air bubbles out and push moderately hard down while lying the stripe down.

You should reach the edges, and have about a 1/4th of an inch overhanging the hood. We will deal with that later.

Take off your tape, and place it over the part of the vinyl you have already layed down on the paint for extra protection.

Now you can do the rest of the vinyl stripe in installments (just cut the backing a foot or so at a time) or just take off the entire rest of the backing and lay the whole stripe down. I recommend the former option, just in case any mistakes happen.

Now you have to pull the transfer tape off. The transfer tape will actually pull on the vinyl and many times it will pull it off the paint. If you pull the transfer tape off around where the stripe is lined up with the cowl, that pulling will actually distort the image. So pull the transfer tape off wherever you know that the stripe is going over and under the hood. This will allow you to pull the transfer tape and not have any distortion in the final image. This is how you MUST do it for every piece. If you do not, you will not get those perfect lines.

Heat about 5 to 6 inches at a time on the low setting. 3 to 5 seconds on low is just right to get the vinyl to do what you want.

Start creasing the vinyl over the hood and under. This is the easiest way to deal with the overhanging and still get a perfect look. If you want to trim the vinyl, you can, just do so carefully. I recommend not trimming it.

If you get anywhere where the vinyl is being troublesome (making air bubbles and such) give it a little heat and it will play a lot more nicely.

Go all the way around the hood. When you get to the windshield, go from the edge towards the center when putting the vinyl under. If you go from the center to the edge, you will get a crease at the edge. I got that crease, and I ended up using a razor to cut it so it would sit without the crease.

And voila, you have the first part of the stripe kit down!

Now go do the other side. When doing this side, remember you are not lining up the edge of the transfer tape and your other hood stripe, you are lining up the vinyl and the other stripe. Keep that in mind or one stripe may look off-center.

ROOF:

Now for the roof. This is the easiest one in my opinion. You line up the stripe with the roof ditch already on the car. Only one thing of note: have less than 1/4th inch of stripe but more than 1/8th inch overhang the edges. If you have more, you will have to trim it or have it bunch up around the molding. If you have less, you won't cover all the paint between the roof and the roof ditch.

Same as earlier, tape it up. This time though, don't tape in the middle. Either tape more to the front or to the back. If you're short (like me!), use a chair. Don't get proud and think you don't need one, because you will be more likely to screw up. I'm 5'6" and I used a chair that probably gave me a foot and a half and I felt comfortable.

After taping, make sure everything is where you want it. Does it all line up correctly? If it does, cut the shorter backing and start laying down the vinyl.

Don't worry about the edges for now.

Do the rest of the roof stripe in installments. This piece is big, you don't want to do the rest in one go. You will be more likely to mess up.

If your roof molding vinyl area is off, use a razor (like the one above). The roof molding has a perfect line/indentation you can use to get a good cut. When cutting GO SLOW. I went fast and my hand slipped and now I have a little more curve than I would want on one of the roof molding areas.

If you trim, SAVE the vinyl. If you make a mistake, you can actually use that vinyl and lay a little on top of where you made a mistake and it will look flush.

Now do the other side.

TRUNK:

Trunk is one of the easier things to do. Line up the trunk pieces how you want to do them. Then tape it down. I would start with the top of the trunk and work your way down to the back (ie rear windshield to bowtie direction).

Cut off the backing and put on the stripe same as always. Be careful and try to take out all the air bubbles.

Take off the tape. Take off the rest of the backing and lay the rest of the stripe down.

Once you have finished, I would start taking the transfer tape off NEAR the windshield. If you take the transfer tape off on the rear portion of the stripe, you can actually distort the image. So take off the transfer tape near the windshield and peel the entire thing off.

Now you finished one side, go finish the other!

FENDER:

Ok, this is the hardest part. The fenders are really hard to line up properly. I spent the same amount on one side for the fenders as I did for both hood stripes. A second person is EXTREMELY helpful here. What I did was line the bottom up properly first and then move my way up.

Two things of note:

1) There are four angle changes in the fender. When I taped it up, I taped on the creases so that there was no air in between the paint and the backing. If there is air in between the paint and the backing, when you eventually lay the vinyl down, it won't go down how you want it to and will mess up your lines. Just take your time on this. I took about an hour and a half for both hashes on one side.

2) The bottom of the hash marks don't go ALL the way down. The line up with the edge in the fender by/around the wheel. The good thing is that these hash marks are cut to the perfect angle to fit around the line.

In my case, things went differently. The two fender hash marks are on the same piece of backing and transfer tape and I just couldn't get the hash marks to line up. So what I did was actually cut the two hash marks apart and then lined them up individually. This helped me a lot, but just be sure it's what you want to do, before you do it.

I had about quarter of an inch hanging over towards the hood.

Ok so now you have them taped up and ready to go. I started laying the vinyl from the middle to the top first, because my biggest priority was to make sure the lines matched up with the hood.

Leave the portion of vinyl hanging over towards the hood till you are fully done. Once you have laid the hash marks out totally, pop the hood. Once again, like before, push the rest over. Use a heat gun if necessary. If you don't like the extra vinyl, trim it, but be sure to leave at least a little to give the complete look when the hood is down.

dude you did this stripe style without any vinyl application fluid?? wow.. that must have been hard... great job... and thanks for the DIY...

You dont need any application fluid with the vinyl that Night Shades uses. It is meant to be installed dry. It has contolled contact adhesive so it doesnt actually stick to the paint until you put pressure on it.

dude you did this stripe style without any vinyl application fluid?? wow.. that must have been hard... great job... and thanks for the DIY...

Yeah, but as above, I think it's supposed to be done that way since you can actually slide the vinyl even if it's dry. The vinyl is pretty tacky, but can be moved. It's once you put pressure it sticks to the paint, but you can pick it up and reapply it many times. I think I applied and picked up the fender at least four or so times before I was happy.

at least you got to the hash marks. i just received mine and am nervous about installing them but now i think i can do it. i might cut them in half though and install each one individually. but now my question is where exactly to place them lol

at least you got to the hash marks. i just received mine and am nervous about installing them but now i think i can do it. i might cut them in half though and install each one individually. but now my question is where exactly to place them lol

There cut to fit perfectly along the upper fender line. You will see what I mean when you test fit them. We put a lot of time and effort in all of our Vinyl. It will pay off for you the customer.

Thanks! Yeah man I was kind of shitting bricks when I started but after multiple calls to Seth and Colin, I was pretty much straightened out.
It was still scary though, as I am a first time installer lol

Quote:

Originally Posted by usafboy

at least you got to the hash marks. i just received mine and am nervous about installing them but now i think i can do it. i might cut them in half though and install each one individually. but now my question is where exactly to place them lol

I think I have managed to pretty much get the hash marks as perfect as I could. Would you like me to take a picture of how they lined up?
At the risk of bragging, I think I did a pretty good job there